Today is Saturday, October 18, dubbed “No Kings” Day at 2,500 events throughout the nation in response to the authoritarian bent of this mad president. I proudly participated in this event here in New York at 47th Street and 7th Avenue, where a humongous crowd inched its way down toward 14th Street where it just broke apart. This was a 33-block walk that seemed to take forever. There had to be thousands and thousands of energized marchers besides myself on line; at one point, I even thought I spied Broadway diva Patti LuPone standing right behind me with her own sign declaring Trump has to go. Of course, I didn’t approach her since I’m sure she didn’t want to be recognized and fawned over during this protest. So I just looked the other way and tried not to focus on staring at her as I stood for almost 90 minutes before beginning the march.

This time I convinced a friend to accompany me, “Jerry,” whom I met by the subway stop in Forest Hills at 10. I set my phone alarm for 8:30 and had a little breakfast before rushing out at 9:50. We then waited for the F train and boarded it, heading toward 47th-50th Street.

I had a large shopping bag that contained my large anti-Dump sign, plus other signs for Jerry who failed to bring his own placards. We headed for 47th Street and waded into the huge crowd that gathered to show their disgust with this administration. As we waited to get the go-ahead to start walking, that’s when I believed I saw Ms. LuPone in back of me.

In an online article for AlterNet entitled “Trump opponents have a plan for exposing his ‘power’ as ‘fragile’ – not ‘unstoppable,'” by Alex Henderson, MSNBC’s Antonia Hylton told host Ali Velshi that the protest outside was turning out to be much larger than previously thought, corroborating my personal suspicions about the true size of the crowd. Hylton reported, “Originally, they thought about 200,000 people.” She added, “But right now, best guesses are that they far exceeded that.” To confirm this, remember that on June 14th, I had to wait a full half-hour before being able to start walking toward the designated end point, whereas today, I had to wait almost 90 minutes before being able to start marching. To me, this signifies that the protest crowd had to exceed 200,000 disgruntled marchers.

In an op-ed published by MSNBC’s website that day, Ezra Klein and Leah Greenberg (two cofounders of the progressive group Indivisible), emphasize that the size of the protests is important – as it sends a clear message that Chump’s power is “fragile” rather than “unstoppable.”

Klein and Greenberg argue, “Right now, this regime is invading and occupying cities across the country. Their masked officers are terrorizing American communities and immigrant families. They’re attacking the final provisions of the Voting Rights Act. And the White House is using the powers of the executive branch to go after political opponents of all stripes, from New York Attorney General Letitia James to comedians to peaceful protesters. Each of these moments might seem isolated, but together, they form a single authoritarian project: silence dissent, project strength and convince the rest of us there’s nothing we can do to stop it”

Klein and Greenberg argue that Dump needs us to believe he’s unstoppable, “that his grip is permanent, that resistance is futile.” They add, “And if we believe him, it just might work. Here’s the truth: It’s all a lie.”

Therefore, I will provide some pics of the protest that I took as I marched proudly today. Look at this acronym made of Dump’s name from one protester: “T (traitor), R (rapist), U (ugly), M (mendacious) and P (pedophile).” Seems to fit, don’t you think?

I just got the figures then for this huge protest: “More than 350,000 people across New York City protested on Saturday,” organizers said. This quote is from an article covering the nationwide demonstrations in Independent. Now the figure for the entire country is pegged at “nearly 7 million,” not 10 million.

As we marched, I forgot to say that we chanted, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” and “What does democracy look like?” The answer, “This is what democracy looks like!” Also, in Washington, D.C. alone, more than 200,000 demonstrators turned up. In Chicago, a massive crowd of 100,000 showed up to register their disgust with Dump and his craven enablers. Even actor John Cusack was interviewed on Chicago streets, where he had a direct message to this monarchical president: “No, you can’t put troops on our streets. You can’t create enough chaos to invoke the Insurrection Act so you can stay in power. We all know what your plan is. He also added this wish for the administration, “Go to hell!”

The city of Atlanta had 35,000 protesters in which Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told the rally crowd that Americans should be “concerned” about Dump’s recent cringeworthy remarks to the military. This is where he talked about handling “the enemy from within,” code word for Americans citizens who disagree with the asshole’s policies and that “we have to handle it before it gets out of control.” Chump had the audacity to tell the commanders in the room that some of them would be involved in using U.S. cities run by Democrats as “training grounds” for troops. Can you believe this fucker saying something as batshit crazy as this to a roomful of generals and top military brass?

Have a good Sunday!

And so it went!

Two great signs showing some creativity here.

Here is the convicted felon without makeup. Truly ugly!

Here is the crowd at the New York protest!

Here is another creative sign.

Standing around.

More protesters marching down 47th Street.

Another creative sign declaring the enemy within is really made up of Dump’s own cabinet: creepy Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Russell Vought, the horrible architect of Project 2025 and is now the Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget.

A very clear declaring “No kings” here!

I really like the “release the Trumpstein Files” sign, where Drumpf’s and Epstein’s faces merge into one.

This pic is probably at the beginning of the march. We’re still milling around here.